


The First Demon Grimoire

by Lancelot50020



Category: Black Clover - Tabata Yuki (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-11-04
Packaged: 2021-01-23 01:08:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21311617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lancelot50020/pseuds/Lancelot50020
Summary: When Asta first receives his grimoire, he's overjoyed. While everyone at the church seems pretty indifferent about the old grimy book, Lily begins to panic. She knows the dangers of that grimoire. How it hurts people and can tear a person to shreds. She has to get Asta help before it's too late. So she goes to the person that taught her about the dangers of the demon grimoire: her grandmother.
Kudos: 15





	1. The Nun That Knew Too Much

**Author's Note:**

> This fic will only spoil the arcs of the anime that has been covered at the time of each update. No, I have not read the manga so please no spoilers. Please enjoy this AU!

Lily couldn’t remember the last time she had run that fast. It was the only thing on her mind. That grimoire. It was unmistakable. How could everyone be so calm after seeing it, didn’t they know what it could do? Before she could even recognize it, she fell on her butt. Her feet were wet, the spell that she unconsciously activated now dissipated into the air. She stood up again, rubbing the spot where she fell before breaking back into a sprint. She was so close. Just a little longer and she could have all of the answers that she needed.

She couldn’t stop the tears streaming down her face, she could see Asta’s face in her mind. Smiling, happy, so full of life. She couldn’t let this happen to him, not him! 

Lily burst into the shop and screamed, “Gran!” She bent down to catch her breath before yelling again, her fatigue was catching up with her, “Gran! It’s an emergency!” She marched right to the counter, expecting to see the old woman behind it. Nothing.

“Gran?!” she called out, scared and concerned. She hopped over the desk and ducked under the small entryway that led into her Grandmother’s room. The room seemed so much smaller now that Lily was older. She stared at the blankets that were draped over some hay against the wall, half expecting to find her grandmother simply asleep upon them. Sadly, she had no such luck. 

The blankets were in disarray, the fire stove was ice cold, the only thing that seemed to be in order were the books that lined all of the walls of the room. Dread piled in the back of Lily’s throat. “If Gran isn’t here...then where is she?” she thought. She sat on the blankets and felt the tears overcome her. “If I can’t find Gran then there is no hope for Asta..without Gran….he could…” Lily couldn’t even bring herself to think the word. 

As she cried she felt a wave of nostalgia wash over her. She could remember how she cried when her grandmother had first told her about the pact between Demons and Humans. She could almost feel her grandmother’s forever cold hand on her shoulder, attempting comfort as best she could. Realization hit her like a wind slice. 

“Heed my words, Lily,” she had said, “If you ever see anything like what happened to me, one of these books opens a door. You will know it when you see it,” her grandmother, wiped away one of Lily’s tears with a boney wrinkled thumb.

“W-what if I d-don’t” Lily hiccuped through her tears.

The old woman pressed her forehead to her, “I guess you’ll just have to pull down every book in this library.”

Lily shot up. She didn't bother to try to wipe her tears as she began to yank all of the books that she could see out of the shelves. She swept her arm around the books and tore them from their spots. Pages flew everywhere, some no longer chained to the books that held them bound. It didn’t take long for her to clear out everything that was at eye level. Lily looked up at the ceiling at the books that towered above her, they seemed to snicker at her. 

“Holy fist of love!” she cried as she slammed her fist down. The water fist above her, copied her exact movements, sending all of the high books tumbling down on her head. As the book rain fell on top of her, she felt her anger swell. “The book isn’t up there either! Asta doesn’t have hundreds of years for me to find the exact book! ...Will it even open if I don’t know what book it is?” The last thought made her shudder. 

She needed to find that book_ soon _. That was when she realized it: when she was young she couldn’t have used her magic to reach up that high, she couldn’t even see at the eye level of where she was now. Lily looked towards the floor and saw three full rows of books that had been left untouched by her giant tantrum. She spun around the circular room and locked eyes with the top of a spine. The book was hiding behind the hay and blanket that acted as her grandmother’s bed. Lily quickly swept the hay and blankets to the side and studied the book more closely. 

The book was bound by leather and was about the size of a grimoire. It seemed old and familiar, but it was so well taken care of that she wouldn’t have been shocked if it was new. What drew her to the book was the design on the tip of the spine: the five-leaf clover.

Lily pressed her index finger against the etched clover on the spine and could already feel a chill running through her. She moved her hand to the top of the book and as she pulled it forward, she seemed to instantly spin around to another side of the wall. She yelped with the sudden distorting change and rolled over, her habit and veil falling into her face as she landed on her back. 

“What the…” she started to sit up when a sudden pain in her head made her pause. She furrowed her brow in pain and strained her eyes to look around the unfamiliar room. It was too dark to see anything, candlelight from the cracks of the door provided only a vague outline of close objects. Random lines seemed to catch the light and made Lily wary of bumping into things.

“Gran? Are you here?” she called. She jumped at the sound of her own voice echoing back her. 

“Lily?” A soft voice called from seemingly very far away.

Lily beamed and laughed slightly, “Yes, it’s me, Gran! I need to talk to you about something! Please!” Lily could hear shuffling footsteps coming towards her.

“I hope this is an emergency Lily, I was in the middle of doing something very important,” her grandmother said, her voice getting closer and closer.

“It is I promise! It’s about your grimoire,” Lily said. The shuffling steps came to an abrupt halt, “Gran?” Lily called.

“What about my grimoire?” her grandmother asked, her voice was strict and flat.

Lily swallowed, “A boy at the orphanage I work at has a similar-looking grimoire to you. His name is Asta and he’s--”

“Never had magic before?” her grandmother asked, sounding as if she was right in front of her. Lily’s breath caught in her chest when her grandmother grabbed her by the wrist and began to drag her deep down a mysterious hallway.

Lily kept her mouth shut until they had reached a place where her grandmother told her to “stay put” until she told her it was okay. Blindly obeying her grandmother had become a habit that she had once never understood, especially when her parents would simply do as the crone said with no further questions. When Lily had asked her mother why she always obeyed her grandmother, all her mother could say was, “I never thought that I could disobey her.” To test this theory, Lily made it her mission to disobey her grandmother at any chance she got however, it proved to be more difficult than it seemed. She somehow always found herself agreeing to do things that she had meant to deny. One day her grandmother had said, “go dust off all the items in the shop.” Just as Lily was going to pick up a bouquet of feathers, she stopped. Young Lily turned to look at the old woman, the woman was just barely taller than her and much more fragile than Lily could ever see herself being. 

“No, I don’t think I will,” she said, crossing her arms, dating herself as an immature ten-year-old.

The woman simply shrugged, “alright then. I’ll do it.” The woman reached for the feathers that laid beside Lily. The woman’s shaking hand seemed to vibrate the feathers as she held them. Lily watched the woman as she moved around the store, the veins in her hands almost seemed to pop out of her skin. The woman’s hand was shaking in the air as it hovered towards the artifacts and other wares the strange store sold. As the woman dusted off the specially designed plates her hand was shaking so much the plates began to clatter to the floor. Lily jumped each time the plates shattered into a multitude of pieces. 

The woman carried on as if she didn’t see the plates crash. Lily wanted to remain adamant about not always obeying her grandmother’s every command, but she couldn’t help but jump each time a plate shattered to the floor. It wasn’t until most of the floor had been covered with plate shards that she gave in to help her grandmother.

She gripped her grandmother’s wrist, her small hands were able to wrap around the fragile woman's skinny wrist, “Gran stop. You’re making a mess.”

The woman pulled her wrist out of the girl’s grasp, “No, you don’t want to help, you don’t have to.”

Lily huffed at her, “Gran, come on. Just let me do it.” She snatched the duster out of the old woman’s hand. The woman froze in place. After about ten minutes of Lily dusting around the shop, the woman finally moved. She walked toward the window at the front of the store and simply stared out of it. It wasn’t until Lily had finished and went to get the woman’s attention did she move again.

Lily never understood why her grandmother acted that way but something about it made her always obey when she was told to do something. It was her grandmother that had told her to become a nun in the first place. 

The sudden memory was replaced with the sudden light that filled the room that she was in. The room was much bigger than the shop that it was attached to, pieces of armor lined the walls with weapons put on display near the middle of the room. Lily gaped at the setup, why would her grandmother have any of this? Her grandmother had always been a passive person who didn’t even believe in corporal punishment, what could she ever need this many weapons for.

Lily found herself being drawn to the weapons and armor before she could even register what was happening. Her hand was almost touching a quiver when she felt her cheek burn and gravity forcing her down. Her shoulder collided with the floor and she waited for a moment, unsure of what had struck her down. She turned around and looked up to see her grandmother standing over her.

“Gran..did you just hit me?” Lily asked, cupping her cheek.

“I told you to stay put,” her grandmother said. The woman reached down for Lily’s collar, “now I need you to listen to me,” the woman pulled her close, closer than she’d been to her since she was small. “Did the boy get a sword? It would be either big and heavy or thin with a glass-like center.”

Looking deeply into the woman’s eyes, she could feel a certain fear rise in her throat, “H-how did you know?” 

The woman clicked her tongue and threw Lily on to the ground again, “Damnit all.” 

Lily pulled herself back up and stood before her grandmother, “Gran, you’re not acting like yourself..what’s going on?”

The woman shed the heavy cardigan that she wore, exposing her ink-black arms. The markings coated from the tips of her fingers to her collarbone, leaving wisps of black streaks that crawled up her neck. The results of using her grimoire inked her entire body. Lily knew that the woman’s legs were the same and that her one red eye was hiding beneath the dye that the woman specially formulated. The woman grabbed the quiver and her eyes rolled into the back of her head. The woman fell to the ground and cried in pain.

“Gran!” Lily wailed, holding on to her grandmother. She tried to pry the quiver from her grandmother’s hands but the woman was holding on to it with everything that she had. Lily could hear her grandmother’s bones cracking with each passing second. The woman’s bones were expanding with each painful cry that she let out. The skin that sagged with gravity was becoming taught to her face. Muscles that had long since left the old woman’s body reappeared under her skin. 

The woman was getting younger. Lily could feel bile rise in her throat. She was now thankful that she had ran as fast as she could out of Hage, neglecting her dinner. Watching the woman’s bones moves on their own in an inhuman way. The woman’s skin was filling with muscles and tendons were squirming out the way to make room. The sight reminded Lily of an awful infection that she’d seen when she was becoming a nun.

The nauseating sight seemed to last for hours but Lily knew that it couldn’t have lasted that long. Her grandmother began to pant and slowly and carefully moved her arms to bring the quiver close to her chest.

“Gran…,” Lily whispered as she touched her grandmother's forehead gently, tracing the familiar flame-like markings on the woman’s forehead. It felt like the only thing that was the same.


	2. Respect Your Elders

Lily’s fingers were growing cold from the chill radiating off of her grandmother. She might have thought that the change had been too much for the woman if not for her labored breathing. The woman’s eyes still hadn’t opened from the sudden transformation. Lily found herself gaping at the woman. Her grandmother’s skin used to sag quite far down on her arms and legs but underneath all of that skin was brittle bone. Now her grandmother looked younger than her, her body was more toned than she’d ever seen. She was beautiful.

“Gran? Can you stand?” Lily asked tracing her fingers along her grandmother’s hairline.

The woman’s eyes slowly opened, they dilated, as if not used to such a bright and clear sight. After her eyes adjusted to the light, the woman clicked her tongue at Lily. 

“Let me up,” she said, clearly irritated. Lily bit her tongue and moved off of her grandmother. “And stop calling me Gran, that just a cover. I don’t need you making me feel younger than I am.” The woman sat up slowly and braced herself against the floor. She cracked her back and began to crack all of the bones that she could.

“Gran, please don’t do that,” Lily said, feeling herself turn green. The woman pointed at her as if she was scolding her.

“What did I just say?” She stood and flattened her hand out and hit her on the head. Lily flinched in response to the cracking that coupled the hit. “My name is Daliah, I’m not your grandmother.”

“T-then who are you?” Lily asked, tears of anger forming in her eyes.

Daliah scratched her head and shrugged slightly, “it’s a bit complicated, so let’s just say that we’re distant relatives.”

Lily’s eyes narrowed, “well alright then Daliah, why were you posing as my grandmother? What did you do to your body? Is anything that I know about the demon grimoire true?” 

The girl scoffed, “of course it’s true. I’m a lot of things but a liar isn’t one of them. My body is a bit different from everyone else’s because of that grimoire. I was acting as your grandmother to finally get away from the life that the grimoire forced me to have.” The girl was walking around the room and started to take pieces of armor off of the walls. 

With Daliah’s arms now full with armor she briskly walked towards Lily. She just looked like a fit healthy young girl. With a quick, “let’s go” Daliah walked past Lily and dumped the armor into her arms. Lily reluctantly followed, mostly because she didn’t want to be locked in the room alone. Lily had to half-run to keep up with her former grandmother. Daliah walked fast but something told her that Daliah was slowing down for her. Lily was just able to make it back into the circular room again.

“What the hell did you do?” Daliah growled at Lily after locking the secret door back.

Lily bit her inner cheek and took a deep breath, “I needed to find the book.”

“Well congratulations,” Daliah threw her hands in the air, “you get to clean it up,” Daliah walked to Lily and swiftly took the armor from her hands, “and you better remember the way I had it organized.” Daliah briskly walked past her again, the armor didn’t seem to slow her pace as much as it had Lily’s.

“I swear…” Daliah trailed off after vaulting over the counter. She dropped the armor on the counter and went to lock the shop’s front door.

Once she locked the door, she pulled off her dress and looked back at the door to the bedroom. Lily’s face flushed and she quickly turned away. She looked at the books that were scattered across the floor and started to pick one up. Daliah tapped on her shoulder before she could remember to not face her.

“Where are my clothes? My memory is a bit foggy,” Daliah said, her bare body exposed.

Lily covered her eyes and walked out of the bedroom and went to the entryway next to it. “Closet,” she said before turning around and leaving immediately.

Daliah didn’t bother to thank her. The woman simply glanced over the clothes and ran her finger across them. Lily tried not to think about everything that had just happened. There was no such magic to regain youth. At none that she knew of. 

Lily became lost in her thoughts while reorganizing the books to their proper locations. She became so engrossed in her task that when the woman tapped her on the shoulder again. Lily should have expected it, but she jumped nonetheless. As she turned to face the woman, she began to wonder where she had gotten the clothes she was wearing. The tunick she wore had been cropped, but it fit her just fine. The pants also seemed to be sliced down to shorts and Daliah had paired the strange outfit with the strange armor that was carried in. 

“Didn’t you hear me calling you?” Daliah asked, already sounding irritated again.

“No, I was lost in thought.” Lily tried to make eye contact with the floor but her eyes caught on Daliah’s boots. They extended just beyond her knee and let the woman’s pitch black thighs be seen before being hidden once again behind the shorts.

“Well stop getting lost.” Daliah held out a letter to her, “the letter carrier came by, it’s for you.”

Lily’s brows furrowed. The only person she had told about her ‘ grandmother’ was the priest. Her grandmother was her last living relative after all. She opened the letter and knew who wrote it based on the handwriting alone: Asta.

Lily looked up. Daliah was no longer in the room, but now in the shop sweeping the floors as if everything was normal. “Daliah!” Lily called out to her from behind the counter.

“Did you finish?” She didn’t bother to look up from the dusty floor, “If you aren’t then I don’t--”

“The letter was from Asta,” Lily cut her off.

Daliah paused and rested the broom against one of the glass cabinets that were in the center of the shop. Lily gulped, unsure if she was going to be hit again or not.

Daliah simply walked to Lily and took the letter from her hands, Lily could have sworn that the woman’s face paled the more she read. Daliah’s eyes lingered on the salutation at the bottom of the letter. It made Lily’s cheeks flush. 

“With love, Asta.” 

Lily had never planned on returning the 15-year-old boy’s feelings, but sometimes it would be the simple things that made her care. Never in the way Asta would have liked, but it was something that made her notice him a bit more than the other children.

“Your boy is going to become a magic knight huh?” Daliah said, more to herself than Lily.

“Is he going to be alright there? You told me about everything that happens when you started to use your grimoire as a magic knight, I just don’t want for--”

“I know.” Daliah began to grind her teeth. “I better go. Watch the shop for me,” she said before turning to march back into the circular room.

Lily followed her, almost flabbergasted, “I can’t! I have to go back to Hage to keep an eye on things. Don’t you have someone else who can watch the shop?”

Daliah scoffed, “you know that people in our family don’t last long. It’s a miracle in itself that you’re as old as you are.”

Lily felt like pouting. She knew that Daliah was right; at the age of 26, she was the oldest living person in her family. Excluding Dalaih since Lily was no longer sure what she meant by ‘distant relative.’

As the two of them entered the room Daliah bent her knees slightly and sprung up into the air. Lily gaped at the scene, she had never seen someone do that without a spell or at least a wind magic affinity. The woman didn’t even have a broom to channel her magic into. Daliah didn’t even bother to look behind her at Lily. She simply gently stopped herself in front of whatever book she was looking for and grabbed the only book that was still on the shelf after Lily’s search. 

Daliah lowered herself down and stopped in front of Lily, “Fine, go back to Hage. Be a damn nun. Just stay as far away from this ‘Asta’ as you can.”

Daliah tried to brush past her, but Lily grabbed her arm, “I can’t just ignore him. I’ve been with him since he was small. And…”

“And?”

Lily sighed, “Yuno is with him. He’s another orphan, but he and Asta are like brothers.”

Daliah raised a brow, “What’s your point?”

Lily clenched her jaw, “Yuno is extremely powerful for his age. It makes me wonder if he has royal blood sometimes…” Lily forced herself to met Daliah’s eyes, “those boys will do anything to protect the other. I don’t care who or  _ what _ you are Daliah, but if you hurt Asta Yuno won’t be the only one you’d have to worry about.” Lily’s voice came out more venomous than she intended but she meant it. She wouldn’t stand for Asta getting hurt, no matter how much of a danger he was to himself and others.

Daliah laughed as if Lily had just made the most hilarious joke, “how cute. You are just like him.’

“Me and him? What do you mean?” Lily asked.

Daliah shrugged off Lily’s hand with ease, “I better get going. Don’t die while I’m gone,” she said, waving back at her with a book. It was then that Lily realized that the book was a grimoire. The book earlier was just some fake used to open the door. 


End file.
